


denial

by cautiouslyoptimistic



Series: jealous [2]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-11
Updated: 2016-12-11
Packaged: 2018-09-07 23:31:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,365
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8820688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cautiouslyoptimistic/pseuds/cautiouslyoptimistic
Summary: lucy comes into town, and it's not like lena's jealous or anything (except she absolutely is)or, the sequel to lucky





	

She doesn’t like her.

Lena can’t put her finger on why, though. It’s not her hair (admittedly, she has pretty hair). It’s not her smile (unfortunately, her smile is sincere and kind). It’s certainly not the uniform (sadly, Lena’s a little into it). It’s not even her smell (strangely, when Lena got a whiff of the other woman as she walked by, all she could think about was rainbows and sugarcane).

Lena just doesn’t like her.

It’s her attitude. (It’s not.) It’s the way she chatters away. (It’s not.) It’s the fact that she has so many friends who missed her. (It’s not.)

It’s not because Lena doesn’t like the way she touches Kara on the shoulder. It’s not because she doesn’t like their easy familiarity, something that hints at an intimate relationship. It’s definitely _not_ because Lena is jealous.

(It is, actually. It absolutely, positively is.)

“So you’re Lex Luthor’s sister?” Lucy asks, and Lena hears the inflection behind the rhetorical question. She hears the, _I don’t trust you_. She hears the, _your brother once kidnapped my sister to get to Superman_. She hears the, _you’re a Luthor, and I don’t like Luthors_. She hears the, _I only put up with you for Kara._

Not that Lena is jealous.

Not at all.

“I hear you’re Lois Lane’s little sister,” Lena replies, and she gets an impressed snort.

“Got it, family is a touchy subject,” Lucy says, sounding positively gracious, and that’s what annoys Lena, not the fact that Lucy’s comment earns a small laugh from Kara.

“I’m so glad you’re here. We were worried when we hadn’t heard from you for a while,” Kara says, smiling far too brightly for it to be genuine. Lena would almost say Kara is _nervous_ , but then, she has no reason to be. She hands both of them another beer, and while Lucy doesn’t look surprised when Kara begins to down her fourth drink of the night, Lena frowns a little.

“Are you all right?” she asks, reaching out to place a hand on Kara’s elbow. The reporter jumps—she literally tumbles right out of her seat—in her attempt to reassure Lena that she’s fine, causing Lucy Lane to chuckle heartily.

“Oh Kara, I see what Alex means now,” she says, rolling her eyes and taking a swig of her beer. And Lena is _not_ jealous of the tone, the hints at a history, the tacit _I know Kara better than you_. (Oh, but she _is_ , and it’s driving her mad.)

“Ahh haa,” Kara begins awkwardly, giggling a bit and straightening her glasses as she shoots Lucy a look, “we don’t have to talk about Alex.”

“Why? Scared, Danvers?” Lucy says, leaning forward as she pushes her beer away. “Why shouldn’t we talk about Alex, she’s had a lot to say about _you_.”

“Has she told you about Maggie?” Kara says quickly, eyes flickering towards Lena briefly before she faces Lucy once more. And look, Lena’s not a _suspicious_ person, but this entire exchange is making her…well, it’s making her feel terribly skeptical.

(She’s not _stupid_ , she knows there’s something going on, and quite honestly, she doesn’t like how this feels.

It reminds her of her teenage years.

The very thought makes her shiver.)

“I should go,” Lena says suddenly, getting to her feet so quickly that her chair literally screeches as it drags against the floor, something that she’d only seen in movies. (She’s never been so emotional before, she’s never had occasion to push a chair so roughly it protests the movement.)

While Lucy frowns at Lena’s sudden announcement, Kara looks stricken.

“Wait, no! We haven’t—”

“—I’m sorry, Kara,” Lena says, though she doesn’t feel all that sorry at all. She _wants_ to escape. And it’s not because she’s jealous. (But…well, it is.) “I have a meeting early tomorrow morning. But this has been…illuminating.” She plasters on her best fake smile and turns to Lucy. “It was good to meet you.” (Normally, she’d say ‘ _great._ ’ Purely out of habit. But she’s never been less enthused by anything than meeting Lucy Lane.)

Kara attempts once more to speak up and change Lena’s mind, but Lena doesn’t really give her a chance. She waves and makes her (awkward) exit.

 

x

 

Of _course_ Lucy would work at the DEO. It’s as if everyone Kara knows works there.

Lena is helping Winn run tests on some nanotech he’s developing (and though he won’t say for what, Lena suspects it’s for National City’s newest vigilante, if Winn’s excitement and chosen color scheme is anything to go by) when she sees it: Lucy Lane putting her hand on Supergirl’s shoulder, laughing at something the Kryptonian has said, leaning into each other like they’re more than just friends.

(It’s how Lucy treats Kara, and Lena is understandably _angry_ that Lucy would step out on the reporter.

Kara deserves _better_. It merely goes unsaid—if not un-thought—that _Lena_ is better.)

“You all right?” Winn asks, his eyes on Lena’s clenched fists, his eyebrows raised. When Lena just nods, he lets out a chuckle. “Right, so you’re not contemplating punching Lucy and Supergirl.”

“Just Lucy, actually.”

“You’re jealous,” Winn says, and when Lena’s eyes flick over to him, he looks resigned, he looks like he understands. “Don’t worry, there’s nothing going on between Lucy and Supergirl.”

“What about Kara?”

“What? What about Kara?” he asks, his voice getting high, making Lena frown—she knows from experience that when his voice gets high, he’s lying. (That’s something else all of Kara’s friends seem to share, they’re all terrible liars. Ironic, considering they work at a secret government organization.)

“Is there anything between Lucy and Kara?” Lena elaborates, watching Winn’s expression, waiting for the crestfallen look—waiting for the confirmation. But instead, Winn smiles, almost…well, almost _mischievously._

(She doesn’t like it. It makes her feel as if she’s missing something and that’s never something she appreciates.)

“You like _Kara_ ,” he says, chuckling even if there’s something sad in his eyes. “Of course you do. Who doesn’t?”

“I don’t understand.”

“She’s, um, well…” He stops, rubs the back of his neck, looking terribly uncomfortable suddenly. “Kara’s easy to fall for, you know?” It’s clear he’s speaking from experience, but Lena chooses not to question him on it—not to ask what happened—because it’s also startlingly obvious that whatever happened isn’t a good memory. “But you don’t have to worry about Lucy. I’m 60% sure she still loves James. Or her work. Or that barista who always gets her coffee order just right.” He frowns, looking a little lost and then shrugs, motioning for Lena to follow him, leaving a chatting Supergirl and Lucy Lane behind as they take an impromptu break. “I admit, I don’t actually know Lucy all that well. I started working here after she went on her mission. And before the DEO…well, honestly, I didn’t want to go anywhere near the Lucy, James, and Kara situation.” He doesn’t seem at all inclined to elaborate, and Lena shares his reluctance. She doesn’t want to hear about it.

“She and Kara seem really close.”

“You’d be surprised how close a trip on motorcycles can make you,” he says in a deadpan, holding up his hands when Lena just stares at him. “Look,” he begins, letting out the tiniest of sighs. “If you like Kara…just tell her. For what it’s worth, I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”

“Has Kara said something?”

“Well, no. It’s just—in hindsight, a lot of things make sense now. Just tell her, Lena. Everything will work out.”

(And look, Lena was absolutely going to tell Kara everything—well, _almost_ everything, she didn’t really want to admit that she was jealous of Lucy—so when it doesn’t happen, it’s not her fault. It’s not like she chickened out.

She doesn’t _plan_ to be kidnapped.)

 

x

 

She wakes up to a masked man staring down at her, a piece of alien tech in his hands, what she supposes is the barrel of the alien weapon pointed directly at her face.

“I want Supergirl,” he tells her, his voice coming out as barely a hiss. “And you’re going to give her to me.”

“How?” she asks, tugging on her bound hands and raising her eyebrows. She’s in a dirty warehouse, filled with enormous wooden cases, the sound of planes taking off in the distance. She wonders if they’re in an unused airport hangar. “How do you expect me to do anything?”

“I don’t need you to _do_ anything. You’re the bait.” Then, without warning, he swings his alien weapon, Lena feels a blinding pain in the side of her head, and the world goes dark.

 

x

 

She wakes up the second time to the sound of fighting.

Her eyes flutter open, and she sees Supergirl using her heat vision from where she hovers high up in the air. She’s about to open her mouth when she feels a tug on her arms, and to her shock, it’s Lucy who’d frantically attempting to untie her as Supergirl is tossed out of the air with a well-timed shot of the alien weapon (gun? it seems like a gun).

“Let’s get you out of here, Luthor,” Lucy says with a grin, shouldering almost all of Lena’s weight as she pulls her to her feet, catching her before Lena can stumble.

“I think I have a concussion,” Lena mumbles, blinking rapidly as Supergirl charges the man in the mask once more. He must not be human because he doesn’t crumple after one of her punches—instead, he seems to be holding his own.

“We’ll get Alex to check you out, but for now, we’ve got to get you out of here.”

“But Supergirl—”

“—can take care of herself,” Lucy says, dragging Lena with her as she heads towards the hangar’s exit. “She’d kill me if I let anything happen to you.” The comment makes no sense—honestly, why would _Supergirl_ care that much about Lena?—but her head hurts far too much to question it, so she just nods, aware enough to see a green alien fly in to help Supergirl (though there’s about three of them, which can’t be right) before her eyes flutter shut and she passes out again.

 

x

 

The third time she wakes up is quite possibly the best, because instead of a man in a mask and Lucy Lane, she wakes up to Kara Danvers smiling down at her in the way only she can.

“Where are you glasses, Kara?” Lena asks as she attempts to sit up (only attempts because as soon as she tries to, someone pushes down on her shoulder, forcing her to remain laying down). She blinks several times when Kara doesn’t answer, and she realizes why—the person she thought was Kara is actually Supergirl, her blue suit and cape standing out in the DEO’s grey medical bay.

“Confusion is common after a concussion,” says another voice, this one from the other side of Lena’s bed. She turns a little to see Alex leaning against the bed, her hand still on Lena’s shoulder. “And you had one hell of a concussion. A little rest and it’ll pass.”

“Thank you.”

“Right. Well, I’ll leave you two alone.” With a knowing smile, Alex squeezes Lena’s shoulder and pushes off the bed, leaving the medical bay without another word. It’s unfortunate, because now Lena has no excuse to keep looking anywhere but at Supergirl.

“You gave us all a scare there,” Supergirl says lightly, pulling up a chair and sitting down. Lena doesn’t know how to respond to that, so she just stays silent. “It seems the alien I took care of last week had an angry friend.”

“Why kidnap me?”

“He seemed to think we were more than friends since I helped out at your gala.”

“He must not know about Kara,” Lena says without thinking, watching in fascination as Supergirl’s cheeks flare, as she averts her eyes, as her hands come up to eyes…as if to straighten glasses that aren’t there. Lena’s eyes narrow.

(Even after a concussion, Lena’s not _stupid_.)

“I’m just glad you’re okay,’ Supergirl says once she’s managed to compose herself.

(Literally everyone she knows works at the DEO. Why shouldn’t _she_ work at the DEO, too? How is it that glasses and a ponytail had been such an effective disguise?)

(Lena thinks back to last week, thinks back to Kara’s uncharacteristic silence and Supergirl’s strange moods and honestly, she’s shocked it took her this long to figure this out.

Kara is the worst liar ever, how had she managed to hide _this_ for so long?)

“Right,” Lena says, perhaps just a little harshly. “My head does still hurt,” from the fact that it turns out her only friend in National City is _Supergirl_ , “so I think I’ll take Alex’s advice and rest.” Supergirl, sorry _Kara_ , nods as she stands, but before she can turn to leave, Lena reaches out and grabs her hand. “Thank you. For coming after me.” Kara, sorry _Supergirl_ , smiles brightly, and once again it occurs to Lena that she must’ve been blind to not have noticed they were one and the same (doubly embarrassing as she’s devoted so much time to staring at Kara).

“Always,” Kara says, and though Lucy waits for Kara outside the medical bay, Lena doesn’t feel any jealousy.

She doesn’t know why, but she doesn’t question it.

 

x

 

She sees Kara again several days later, the two of them taking a walk as they sip coffees from a place Kara swears by. They’re chatting about everything and anything—though Lena decides to keep the fact that she knows who Kara really is to herself, at least for now—when Kara casually mentions that Lucy told her to be brave before she left again. It’s such an odd and random comment that Lena thinks nothing of it until Kara suddenly stops and surges forward, one hand cradling the back of her neck as she pulls Lena in for a kiss.

And when she can think clearly again, Lena silently thanks Lucy and regrets her cold send off.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm on tumblr @forlornlyoptimistic. send me prompts!


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